The following case study looks at action taken by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (GCHSCP) to engage with a range of sectors and community members to inform their strategic plan.

Reason action was taken

As noted in our take the right actions page, one of the key ways to reduce health inequalities is by having effective partnerships across sectors.

With this in mind, GCHSCP were keen to engage with a wide range of partners and communities on their Draft Strategic Plan 2019 - 2022. They planned a wide range of engagement and events during the consultation period. 

Action taken

A mainstreaming equalities event was held to allow people to give feedback on how addressing inequalities could be embedded within the strategic plan. It was an opportunity to get views from staff and community members.

The event was held when there was still scope to inform the strategic plan and the invite was sent out widely. Numbers from each sector were monitored to get a fair balance of staff on the day. The invite noted that staff didn’t need to have been involved in any specific equalities work, which meant that a range of staff could attend and share their experience with each other.

80 staff members from health and social care and third sectors attended the event. This included staff from

• mental health
• social work
• procurement
• communications
• health improvement
• planning
• governance
• strategic planning.

NHS Health Scotland’s resource called ‘Role of health and social care partnerships in reducing health inequalities’ was discussed before the event and helped inform some questions to be discussed at the tables.

Facilitators at tables took time to better understand diverse community needs including those in poverty and living in deprived areas. All discussions were recorded and data was further discussed at later strategic meetings. This data also helped inform the strategic plan.

People who helped

The full day event was organised by GCHSCP equality group, chaired by Fiona Moss (Head of Health Improvement and Inequality). 

GCHSCP staff supported the planning of the event, which featured presentations from Chair at the time of the Internal Joint Board (IJB) and Senior Officers in the GCHSCP. They also planned input from a number of staff at table discussions.

Impact and lessons learned

Good practice examples were shared at the event which led to staff having further discussions about their own practice on inequalities and diverse community needs. 

Questions at the tables were simple and well thought out, aiming to get the best discussions on inequalities using Plain English language. This meant everyone could contribute to discussions.

Evaluation survey

35 delegates completed a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the event.  Some general comments from this were

• “It has made me more aware of the emphasis currently placed on the GCHSCP to ensure that inequalities are dealt with and eradicated.”
• “Learning from others! Opened my eyes!”
• “Amazing event!”
• “Good links with a range of people. Learned a lot about how people work.”
• “Presentations very good.”
• “More awareness on issues around inequalities. Good networking”.

Impact on the strategic plan

It would be difficult to extract how the mainstreaming event contributed to specific actions in the strategic plan as this event was one of a large number of consultations. However, some actions in the strategic plan regarding inequalities include to

• lead and support action to reduce child poverty in Glasgow and challenge the stigma of poverty
• support access to financial advice and employability for patients and service users and contribute to inclusive growth in Glasgow
• act to mitigate welfare reform and support good work, healthy workplaces
• implement the Standard Service Response Pathway, aimed at people who are known to mental health services who repeatedly attend Emergency Departments more than once in a six month period
• be responsive to the health care needs of people in custody and to ensure appropriate links are made to other services (such as addiction and mental health services) to meet individuals’ ongoing health needs.

You can visit the GCHSCP site for their Strategic Plan 2019 - 2022 (external site) and the Consultation and Engagement Report (external site).

Further information

You can find out more about ways to reduce health inequalities within our reducing health inequalities section.

This case study is based on information provided by Fiona Moss from GCHSCP. If you would like to discuss further, you can contact our Health Promoting Health Service (HPHS) team by email at nhs.HealthScotland-hphsadmin@nhs.net.